Arrival And Day 1 In Siem Reap, Cambodia

April 22, 2012 (Sunday)

I've always wanted to go see Angkor Wat, so when I learned that Cebu Pacific now has a direct flight to Siem Reap, I didn't hesitate to book. I'm glad I was able to convince my father (along with my brother) to go with me on this trip. We got a roundtrip ticket to Siem Reap for less than 7,000 pesos. Great deal, right? This is the 2nd time I'm going out of the country with my dad and bro, so I'm really excited.

On the day of our trip, we arrived at the airport with more than an hour to spare. Our flight from Manila to Siem Reap was supposed to be at 7:45 in the evening but was delayed for an hour because of air traffic. I'm used to traveling so flight delays don't really bother me that much, but it's still a hassle to wait especially if someone is waiting for you at the airport of your destination. Anyway, I can't really blame the airline, it's the NAIA airport that's congested with too many flights going in and out of the country. We took off from Manila at around 8:30pm.

We arrived in Siem Reap International Airport at around 10:45 in the evening. It's always a wonderful feeling being in a new country for the first time. There's an inexplicable joy that I feel whenever I do that. Maybe that's why I love traveling so much. Someone was waiting for us from Sam So Guesthouse holding out my name in a cardboard. It wasn't hard to spot him, a tuktuk driver who will take us to our guesthouse in Siem Reap.

As the tuktuk was driving us to our guesthouse, We wondered why it's so dark in the streets of Siem Reap. Then we saw an array of hotels dotting the sides of the street. Hotel after hotel literally sprawled in the sidewalks of Siem Reap. I guess when they said that the tourism in this city is booming, they weren't kidding.

We arrived in Sam So guesthouse at around 11:30pm. We booked a triple room there for only $18 a night. Apparently, accommodations in Siem Reap are really very cheap. I liked our room, clean and spacious. The air conditioner could use more power though. We were really tired from the flight so we went to bed. We needed energy for a full day of temple hopping the next day.

Sam So Guesthouse

April 23, 2012 (Monday)

I arranged for a tuktuk driver to bring us to the temples. I knew him from Couchsurfing and he was kind enough to accept my request. John picked us up from the guesthouse at exactly 8:30 in the morning of April 23, 2012. After a free breakfast of toast, egg, fruits and coffee from the guesthouse, we went off to Angkor to go see the temples. I bought a tourist sim card on our way there so I could contact people easily in Siem Reap. When we arrived in the Angkor complex, we hired a tour guide that will accompany us for the whole day. Sameath was the name of our tour guide and his fee was $30 for 1 day. Sameath was really great, the best thing I liked about him was that he took nice pictures of us. I didn't even use my tripod that much coz he was doing all the picture taking for us.

First stop was Angkor Wat, of course. It was majestic, it really lives up to its fame and deserving of its place as one of the original 7 Wonders of the World. We saw some monks as we were entering the complex, so we took the opportunity to take some pictures with them. Sameath led us to the main temple of Angkor Wat, we took pictures along the way and Sameath explained to us a lot about the temple's history.

Then we went up to the central tower and climbed this really steep wooden staircase. It was really steep, I'm scared of heights, but it didn't stop me from climbing. I'm glad I did coz the view was wonderful at the top. We stayed there for about 20 minutes, took some more pictures, then climbed down. The descent was even scarier than the climb up. I held on tightly to the rail and slowly climbed down the stairs.

It was about 11pm and we were getting hungry so we decided to grab some lunch first before moving on to the next temple. Our tuktuk driver brought us to Somros Sra Srang Restaurant. We liked this restaurant. There were free peanuts on our table and rice was unlimited! The peanuts tasted different but good, salty and sweet at the same time. We ordered 3 different meals. I ordered the famous Cambodian dish, Amok.

Popular Cambodian dish, AMOK

My dad ordered a beef dish and my brother ordered Shrimp Curry. Everything was delicious! And the serving was really big, we were so full by the time we finished lunch. Our driver and tour guide had a free lunch from the restaurant. I guess that's how it works in Siem Reap. When they bring tourists to a certain restaurant, they get their food free.

After lunch, we went to Ta Prohm. This is one of the temples I was looking forward to visiting mainly because it's popular being featured in the movie Tomb Raider. It was beautiful, huge trees towering over the temples, and huge roots hugging the temple walls. We entered the ruins with a sense of mystery, it was really nice. Then next we went to the Terrace of the Elephants and beside that is the Terrace of the Leper King. We just passed there, then we went to Phimeanakas and the Royal Palace grounds. We didn't really stay there for long either, but we liked the history of the place. Next we visited Baphuoun temple. There was a steep staircase there as well, but we didn't climb this time. After Baphuoun, we went to Bayon temple. Bayon is really beautiful! It was like a maze inside and the stone faces (with which the temple is known for) were great with their creepy smiles. Many photo opportunities there. Bayon was our last stop for the day.

Monks heading to Baphuoun temple

Bayon temple

Ta Prohm Temple

Large tree roots at Ta Prohm

Terrace of the Elephants

At around 6pm, we went back to our guesthouse. At 6:45pm we went to Amazon Angkor Restaurant for a buffet dinner and a free Apsara dance show. I asked the guesthouse in advance to reserve a table for us so we had a nice spot at the very front of the stage. There were a lot of food options, but I wasn't really thoroughly impressed by the food there. It was passable. But we enjoyed the 1 hour dance show. The dance started at 7:30 and ended at 8:30. After dinner, we went to Night Market. We tried the Fish Spa for 15 minutes and I bought some souvenirs including the I love Cambodia T-shirt. Then after that brief shopping spree, we went back to the guest house and called it a day. It was a good first day in Siem Reap, I should say!

Apsara Dancing

Fish spa for $1